Run or Dye Honolulu

Hey Everyone!
Hope that you are doing well. My job has been keeping me SUPER busy, but I wanted to get this post up right away. On Labor Day my mom and I did the first ever Run or Dye in Honolulu. If you have not heard about Run or Dye you can check them out here. It’s a similar concept to the Color Run and if you have not heard of that either. The gist of it is that you are run/walking a 5k roughly 3 miles where you are paying to get dirty. The organizers through color at you at random spots throughout the race and your registration money either goes back to the people hosting the run or it goes to a charity organization in the area. Run or Dye Honolulu decided to give the proceeds from the event to Aloha United Way Hawaii, which is pretty cool in my opinion. Below are pictures from the event:

Before the race. My mom and I got there really early, because we had plans later in the day. As you can tell I’m still half asleep….hahah!

The announcer guy was pretty cool and kept the crowd energized before and during the event. This event had a staggered start so only about 500-700 people were allowed to go at a time. While we waited they tossed out free gear such as extra dye packets, hats, gloves, etc. They also had some club/Top 40 hits pumping to keep you energized.

People got a little crazy and started throwing their packets before the end of the race and I thought the ground looked pretty from all the dye 🙂

At the first station people throwing dye! I didn’t take pictures of all the stations because it’s super hard to run when you are holding a camera and trying not to get it dirty. I only ended up running about half of the event.

At the end of the course there was a huge sound stage with another announcer guy and blaring music. They were planning on having a dye throwing fest but my mom and I elected to leave a bit early cause we had plans later that day.

My mom and I standing next on the backside of one of the official Run or Dye tents.

Tips for people thinking of doing a similar run:

1. In Honolulu the stadium parking is $5 I suggest getting dropped off. You may look like a crazy person waiting for your ride, but you are giving the event free publicity!

2. Tell your ride or pack your car with towels to cover your seat, baby wipes to clean yourself off, tissues in case you need to blow your nose after because there will be tons of dye powder everywhere!

3. Pick up your packet beforehand. At our event they had problems using the QR code on the packet pickup day, but on the event day there was a LONG line of people waiting to pick up their packets and they hadn’t even raced by the time we were done.

4. HAVE FUN , but be realistic. I know this might sound like a given, but my mom and I noticed quite a few people while at the event who had no idea how long a 5k is, so do yourself a favor and prepare yourself.

See you soon!

Hawaii: Aiea Loop Trail Hike

8 / 1 / 138 / 13 / 18

Hello! I keep saying that I will be back with more posts during the week, but then it does not happen. I apologize for that. I have been doing the Simple Green Smoothie Challenge throughout the month of July and have been posting nearly every day about my smoothies on my tumblr, so feel free to check those posts out!

Back to the real reason we are here. I thought since I gave you the beautiful views from Lanikai Pillboxes that I would show you another hike that I did not so recently (hahah!) That would be the Aiea Loop Trail hike. I did this hike with a different friend of mine back in November and although it was not as beautiful as the Pillboxes hike it had it’s own forest beauty. From the sign below you can tell that there are several places to park for the hike and you want to park at the last parking lot there. Score a place with parking provided! If you don’t you’ll be walking for much longer than you anticipated. As you can also tell this is a 4.5 mile loop hike that lands you pretty much back where you started.

I’m so excited for this hike I could barely contain myself. We moved my friend’s car after this picture because we had parked in the first parking lot we saw, but that is not that one you want. You want to park in the last one on the road.

The Aiea Loop Trail hike is a basic straightforward hike with a direct path provided by the hiking Association in and out of the hike. Be forewarned though that this one is super muddy all the time. I know someone who did this hike recently in the middle of Summer and still got their shoes caked in mud. So be prepared to get muddy! It’s worth it for the views below:

See you can even catch a view of the H-3 Freeway from the hike, so that’s a nice treat for hikers.

Someone spray painted the word Aloha on this fallen down tree

I took an upclose picture of some of the moss found on the trail

If you are ever in Hawaii for a while, I hope that you ‘ll take a chance and hike the Aiea Loop Trail. See you soon!

Hawaii: Lanikai Pillbox Hike

7 / 15 / 138 / 13 / 18

I feel like such a failure for not posting for a month and a half. However my life has been crazy, but that really is no excuse! I have drafted a whole ton of posts during the month of June, so hopefully *fingers crossed* that within the coming weeks I will have all these posts up. Now back to the post at hand…Star Wars Boy recently moved to Hawaii and had not really gotten to see anything yet. 2 weeks ago we finally got a chance to meet up when I invited him to do the Lanikai Pillbox Hike with me.

The Lanikai Pillbox hike like all hikes on the island of Oahu are all approved by the Hawaii hiking club, meaning that you are hiking where people have already hiked and it has been made relatively safe (You can’t control nature completely!) The Pillbox hike commonly known as Pillboxes located in Lanikai is rated as a beginners hike and is approximately 2 miles. As a warning it is 2 miles nearly straight uphill! I loved this hike and have been dying to go back again ever since. Here’s a few pictures from the hike:

The sign at the beginning of the hike. The beginning of the hike is located in a neighborhood , so parking close can be a pain in the butt, however if you are willing to walk a ways you can park closer to the beach park which is located down the hill.

The two above pictures are the view from about halfway up and a picture of me with the amazing view from one side. The view on the otherside is the mountain and the valley which is pretty but not as pretty as the ocean. I know I look like a crazy person, but that tends to happen when I’m hiking. I wish that I had taken pictures of the Pillboxes because they have some pretty amazing graffiti and that’s saying something. In case you are wondering what a Pillbox is it is a military bunker that severed as a lookout point on the mountain. These particular bunkers were last used during World War II I think. Hopefully in the future I’ll bring you another post on the Lanikai Pillbox Hike with more pictures of the Pillboxes.

Thanks for visiting and I hope to see you again soon!

Hawaii:North Shore Day

5 / 15 / 138 / 13 / 18

I apologize that this post is going up so late, but I just found these pictures and thought it was well worth it to show you. My friend Aiko originally from Kauai has been going to school at UH Manoa this past year and I decided to take her up to the North Shore since she had never really been and one of the famous shave ice shops is temporarily closing. We made this trip out to the North Shore over the Presidents’ Day Holiday and it actually was not as crowded as I thought it would be.

Aiko and I doing the Dole Plantation maze. For those of you wondering it is not a maze in the traditional sense that you are trying to get from beginning to the end, but this maze involves you finding the hidden boxes within each section. We’re holding our guides that have the diagrams with the hidden boxes along with the handy dandy map they give you.

Also at the Dole Plantation they recycle the water that they use to water their crops to house their koi fish. You can feed the fish, but as you can tell from this picture these fish get fed alot!

There are signs next to the fish pond that tell you not only the different species of pineapple grown throughout the world, but also how far Dole Plantation is from certain places. I think that she’s pointing to the one that says Kauai, but I’m not positive.

We also stopped at the same beach that my friend and I stopped at to visit the sea turtle that was once again napping on the beach.

This time my friend and I actually made it to the beach, but I forgot to take pictures perhaps another time. On the way back we stopped at a rather famous shave ice shop called Aoki’s. It was rather nostalgic and I actually love their shave ice. At the time they were planning on closing completely, but since then they have decided to close and move their shop across the road in the future. It just won’t be the same though. I’m glad that we got to go to the original location before it closed.

Hawaii:Heeia General Store and Deli

3 / 5 / 138 / 25 / 18

My first trip out to Heeia General Store and Deli was actually at the beginning of the year when these pictures were taken and I have yet to go again. I apologize that there are not more pictures, but somedays I try to act like a normal person and not shoot everything in sight.

I heard about Heeia General Store and Deli from a few Hawaii bloggers over 2 years ago and have been dying to get out there ever since. One of my friends recently moved to the area and could not stop raving about how much she loves it there. On one of my random days off I decided to catch up with her and eat here.

This is the view from the seats inside the store. There’s only a few seats inside the store and all of them face the ocean. Seriously this picture does not even do it justice.

This was our food. Both burgers I think mine was a grilled chicken and hers was an actual burger.I can’t remember exactly but I do remember that neither of us got the specials for that day.

This is the special sauce that they have at every table with the soy sauce and a couple of other things. I think it is a variation of a hot sauce but honestly I can’t remember. Even more of a reason to go back there. One thing I do remember amazingly well about that day was that Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park from Hawaii 5-o were having a casual lunch with some friends that day. My friend made fun of me for being a bit star struck but I calmed down and was cool enough not to take their picture since they were trying to be uber normal.

See you soon!